Stories
by ginganinja23
Summary: Audrey has heard an interesting story at a banquet given by one of her mothers' friends in Hightown. Not entirely thrilled about what she's heard she goes to visit Varric to have a little chat about it. Set 1 3/4 yrs after Act I. Hawke/Varric/Anders.


_This is for the DA2 Anders prompt group at BSN. This week's prompt is "silence"_

_Like a couple of other group members when I read the prompt I immediately thought of the Doctor Who episode Silence in the Library which was immediately followed by a thought of Silence of the Lambs - it may have something to do with the fact that Doctor Who is on my subconscious as well as others because omg did you see the last episode? & now we have to wait til later in the year for the continuation of the series! & then my thought train (unique at the best of times) goes from a tv episode to a movie and what came next was a random idea while drifting off to sleep last night. This is the first time I've ever used dialogue from something else other than Dragon Age, I hope it works & doesn't come across as silly or lazy so: **Disclaimer: The second story that Audrey tells is from the movie Silence of the Lambs**_.

Varric lounged on his favourite settee perusing some interesting documentation on Ovdin's Glitterdust contracts, a self-satisfied smirk morphing into genuine delight at the sight of Audrey Hawke, Hightown's newest neighbour and rouge extraordinaire standing in the doorway to his now opulent rooms in the not so luxurious Hanged Man.

"Honey!" he exclaimed placing the parchments on a new ornate side table "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Oh you know the tinkling of crystal tends to grate on ones ear after a while" her attempt at an aristocratic Kirkwallean accent made him laugh out loud.

She closed the door behind her and took a seat opposite him, her eyes roaming over the new additions to his abode since her last visit "I heard an interesting story last night" she informed him while scrutinising an unusal picture that now hung above the fireplace.

Varric was naturally intrigued but her choice of the word 'interesting' held something in it. He couldn't quite read Audrey; she was occasionally infuriating like that, deliberately assuming a shroud of nonchalance to expertly cover her real thoughts. It had often proved so useful in getting close to people and in acquiring information, he used the same technique himself, but it reminded him of just how much she still kept him, and the others, at shoulder length. Anders though; there was something there that much was obvious, but if she ever lowered her guard completely when alone with him, Anders kept that to himself. He'd known her for two years now; she was the most skilled person he had ever met at 'fitting in' with anyone and anywhere. He had an idea what kind of skill that really was, but he was yet to get that story out of her.

"Really?"

"Ah huh" she dropped her gaze to his and leant further back into the plush couch "it wasn't told quite as well as you could have managed but nevertheless... interesting"

She seemed to be baiting him; with an inner shrug Varric took it "What was so interesting about it?"

"It was about a mage, hardly the protagonist of popular choice here in Kirkwall. Anyway, in this story the mage escapes the Circle of a foreign country and ends up in the Free Marches." The corner of her mouth cocks upwards "Stop me if you've heard this one. So this apostate is determined to convince people that mages shouldn't be locked up so he comes here to Kirkwall because everybody knows that the mages here are treated harsher than anywhere else in all of Thedas. He doesn't have a whole lot of success and after some years he falls in love with the daughter of a noble" she raises her eyebrows at him "and in her he finds what he was really looking for, unconditional acceptance and love, and together their example achieved more for the mages in the Thedas than anything."

"You're right I would have told it better"

"I'm sure you did... once"

"Definitely a different ending, what sort of finale is that 'setting an example'" he scoffed.

Audrey sighed exasperated "Really Varric 'unconditional acceptance and love', that doesn't sound like you either, I thought you knew him better than that."

In the silence that descended as Audrey waited for his response Varric, forever conscious and listening for unwelcome surprise visitors, thought he heard the familiar tread of the apostate mage in question in the hallway outside his door.

"I think there's alot that you and I don't know about Blondie" he stressed the word 'you', "do I fully understand his motives?" His voice had dropped his usual bantering tone his face intense probing Audrey's "Well I don't know... how much of anyone do we really know, save for what they tell us." His eyes regained his distinctive twinkle "But it depends on how the story develops, whether or not I'll truly have to comprehend what drives your handsome apostate."

"He's hardly mine Varric." Audrey chastised blandly.

"We'll see..." the dwarf smiled like he knew something she didn't.

Audrey rolled her eyes and Varric's quickly glanced to his still closed door, the crack of light showing at its base distinctively broken in the middle.

"So... I'm going to tell you a story Varric, one that my father told me."

"Well who would've guessed; Honey the storyteller."

"Funny... just listen."

He held up his hands in apology and a silent sign for her to continue.

"During the Orleasian occupation of Ferelden there lived a little girl. She was born and raised in Denerim and had never left the city. When she was ten years old her father was murdered, leaving her an orphan, and she was sent to live with her cousins on a sheep and horse farm in the Bannorn. One morning, not long after she had arrived at her new home, she was awoken by a strange noise. It was early, still dark outside, and as sleep left her the noise became clearer; it was screaming, some kind of screaming, like a child's voice. The little girl got out of her bed and went downstairs; she walked through the empty farmhouse to the door and went outside. She crept up to the barn, she was so scared to look inside but she just had to. She hesitantly pulled back the barn door, and saw lambs and they were screaming. Her uncle had his back to the door, slaughtering the lambs and they were screaming. The little girl tried to free them, she opened the gate to their pen, but they wouldn't run. But the little girl could. She took one lamb and ran away, as fast as she could. She didn't know where she was going, she had no food, or water and it was very cold, so very cold. And the little girl thought, if she could save just one, but the lamb in her arms was so heavy, so very heavy. The little girl didn't get more than a few miles before a Templar found her staggering along a country road. The Templar took the little girl and the lamb back to the farm and her uncle was so angry, so very angry, that he slaughtered her lamb right there in front of her and sent her away with the Templar to the chantry. The little girl grew up but she still woke up sometimes, in the dark, hearing the screaming of the lambs. When she was old enough she joined the rebel army led by the Rebel Queen Moira then King Maric and she fought like a demon, determined to stop the Imposter King Meghran and his Orlesians from killing one more Ferelden. Because deep down inside she thought that if she could save them she could make it stop, if they lived she wouldn't wake up in the dark ever again to that awful screaming of the lambs."

Varric considered her story and just nodded in silent understanding.

Outside his door Anders stood rooted to the spot, his feelings in confliction because she understood more than he realised and he loved her all the more for it.


End file.
